Tyndall 1 Melissa Tyndall LING 4050 April 23, 2004 The Correlation Between Brain Damage and Language

Loss Imagine that you are a fully capable American when it comes to matters of the English language. Now, consider what it would be like to begin language acquisition from scratch as an adult due to an accident or a stroke. To get to the root of language problems, scientists have often researched the problematic loss of language skills as well as skills people lack from birth. Learning disabilities like dyslexia (a disability our president, George W. Bush has) are a very common problem in todays society. Generally, such problems are due to imbalances and injuries to either the right or left hemisphere of the brain. Comas, strokes, athletic events gone wrongaccidents that retard language skills happen more often than one might realize. People like David Kennedy had their lives turned upsidedown by devastating accidents. During a soccer scrimmage Kennedy collided with another man and severely damaged his head and face. Kennedy had trouble staying awake (he would sleep 18 hours a day), seeing correctly, and keeping his balance. Perhaps worst of all, Kennedy could not correlate his vocabulary with what he saw. Though what Kennedy sustained was classified as a mild brain injury, he will sit at the dinner table and want someone to pass the butter, but a word such as salt or ketchup will slip from his lips. Brain injuries can damage your ability to absorb and organize information, to make and execute plans and decisions as well as alter a persons moods, personality, make them withdrawn, anxious, hostile, and even distracted or irritable (Carey). Kennedy experienced these symptoms, growing fatigued, easily frustrated, and even suffered from long-tern peripheral double vision. Once a man who put together a VW

Tyndall 2 camper and rebuilt a Porsche engine could not even reassemble a lawnmower he had taken apart and put back together numerous times prior to the accident. Scientists are constantly immersing themselves in the study of the electronic impulses passing through the human brain, attempting to discover the root of brain dysfunction. Cerebral damage can often cause brain damage to language skills The most widely held theory of language-brain representation is Cerebral Dominance. This theory argues that one hemisphere is dominant (LH) and the other minor (RH) with regard to their association or contribution to language functions. One commonly held assumption is that there is a direct relationship between certain brain areas and language and speech functions (McQuillen, Strong). The hypothesis that human beings speak with the left side of their brains began 120 years ago when a French surgeon named Paul Broca made the claim. Broca deduced that we speak from the left hemisphere without any assistance from the right hemisphere. Since then, research suggests that familiar language is processed by the right hemisphere, which specializes in pattern recognition, and not by the dominant, language-specialized left hemisphere. However, this other hypothesis is not widely acceptedmost hold to the idea that the right side of our brains store familiar catch phrases and clichs such as Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, and How are you? (Kempler, Van Lancker). The author of Brains Show Two Sides of Language Function also agrees that the left and right hemispheres work together in order to maintain the harmony of language. Bower writes, damage to the brains left side often undermines language abilities. Occasionally, so does the right-brain damage. Still a lucky few individuals can suffer injury to either side and retain their verbal skills (B. Bower). It seems that language is dependent not on a particular side, (right or left) but on which portion of the brain is dominant or holds a particular persons

Tyndall 3 language. In fact, some people possess a network of language areas on both sides of the brain that resists localized damage. One in every ten people has the aforementioned two-sided neural organization while the same number display right-brain coordination (and oddly, these people are generally left-handed) (B. Bower). A major problem related to damaged areas of the brain is dyslexia. A study was done with children with ages ranging from seven to eighteen whose reading skills and capabilities varied from exceptional to those who were afflicted with reading disabilities. Sally Shaywitz, a professor of pediatrics at Yales School of Medicine, states that reading disabilities are due to a glitch in the wiring of childrens brains (Dyslexia). Her husband (and business partner in the field) assisted her in writing a book in which they say that a dyslexic child does not have the function or ability in their brain that children who are good readers have. Once again, there was no specific mention of right-brain or left-brain dominance in dyslexic members of society, but only mentioned that it was a problem that was pertinent and should be dealt with in children as soon as the wiring problem in the childs brain was noticeable: To understand dyslexia, people want to figure out the connection between oral and written skills, says Richard Ivy, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley. This work shows that the writing system is not necessarily scaffolded on top of the phonological system. Moreover, the fact that spoken and written language are not linked supports the idea that they evolved independently. (Strauss) Though the affects of dyslexia are disheartening, perhaps some of the most severe brain injuries result from strokes. Strokes not only impair physical attributes of the body but also

Tyndall 4 impair language skills. This is because strokes are detrimental to the brain and often affect the parts of the body, which are extremely pertinent to speech (such as the face, lips, and mouth). Though there have been patients who defied that hypothesis and continued to use sign language flawlessly after a stroke, generally this will also affect sign language as well as verbal communication (Bower). Due to patients (like Sara M. in this particular article) the stereotype that specific hemispheres are predominant in specific everyday uses. However, it has been observed that those who illustrate no language impairment after a TBI sometimes have trouble distinguishing or understanding spatial tasks or visuals. Examples are the ability to assemble colored blocks into preset patterns and to draw and describe with signs the layout of objects in a familiar room (Bower). Research done at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has also found that when a stroke affects the language areas in the left side of the brain, the right side takes over and learns how to perform language tasks (Washington University). Each year, approximately 750,000 Americans suffer from an ischemic stroke, which results in aphasia (an impairment of the ability to use or comprehend words, usually acquired as a result of a stroke or other brain injury) (Washington University). Aphasia, which the National Aphasia Association estimates affects about one million people in the United States, can also be the result of a stroke. Jim Gubert, a man who suffered a stroke in 1997, claims that his intellect is intact, but he is forced to tote around a card that indicated he is not drunk, neither is he mentally handicapped (though his speech is slurred). The card exemplifies the recurring frustration for people with aphasia, a language impairment caused by damage to the brain through stroke, head injury or a tumor. This compromised ability to

Tyndall 5 communicate spills into all areas of life, affecting family relationships and all human interaction (Rudavsky). So, what may be even more frustrating is that while the language function of the brain may be intact, somewhere between the brain and the mouth, a persons motor skills will fail to work and will produce verbal gibberish. Such as situation was especially difficult for Gubert, who not only lost pertinent language and communication skills, but also human interaction. The article stated that his wife and children left him because they could not handle the pressures of his condition (Rudavsky). Often, memory is impaired after a traumatic brain injury. Studies show that not only do survivors of traumatic brain injuries demonstrate impairment; they also may have difficulty predicting what they will and will not remember (Kennedy, Nawrocki). Generally, traumatic brain injury sufferers do not notice language, but physical difficulties until they have dealt with the experience for some time. Traumatic brain injury victims also had difficulty with word pairs. The study at Washington University also concluded that the patients right side if the brain is more active than normal during a verbal language task, and that the right sides activity decreases with practice, similar to what happens on the left side of the brain in healthy individuals (Washington University). Similar to the results of a stroke, a different study claimed that the size of the traumatic brain injury brain lesion was also an important factor in how that particular injury to the brain affected language skills. It seems that brain lesions can also cause what is called Foreign Accent Syndrome: This condition, which is usually the result of a stroke or head injury, makes patients change their pronunciation to sound like non-native speakers. While the type of accent a patient develops is not dependent on any knowledge of a

Tyndall 6 particular foreign language, the combination of certain changed features--such as lengthening of syllables, altered pitch, and mispronounced sounds--makes a patient's pronunciation sound similar to a particular foreign accent. Although patients often improve as the brain heals or other parts of the brain take over, speech treatment is usually needed to speed up the healing process and minimize any residual speech disorders. (Foreign Accent Syndrome) Due to these brain lesionsregardless of which side of the brain they may reside speech therapy is often needed in order to correct language problems. The 2002 article is not, however, based to a particular brain regionfurther proving that it is unnecessary to label a side of injury in relation to the side affect, but simply to solve the problem. Yet another problem in the which side of the brain dilemma is deciphering whether or not speech and writing are controlled by the same hemisphere. In a study, a girl prone to epileptic seizures had her brain surgically split in two halves in order that the electronic pulses could no longer travel back and forth between the sides of her brainthereby eliminating her seizures. The girls doctors disproved the long incorrect hypothesis that speech and writing reside in the same brain hemisphere as one another, for when the patient was tested, it was obvious that her left hemisphere controlled speech and reading. Conversely, her left hemisphere did not control writing. After the surgery, the patient was capable of reading and spelling aloud. However, she could no longer write. When tested with flash cards, the young girl could name what was on the card (as well as spell it aloud), but could not write out the corresponding words (Strauss). Doctors argue that each part of the brain, regardless of hemisphere, is made up of a variety of independently working parts. Basically, the brain is like a puzzle, and each piece has a different functionit would be impossible to put the functions of one puzzle piece into a

Tyndall 7 different slot in the puzzle. Therefore, one could not move writing capabilities (for example) from one hemisphere to the other. A stated in the article on David Kennedy, the man injured playing soccer: The brain has the consistency of Jell-O or pudding. It basically floats inside the skull. Problem is, the skull is not all smooth. The bottom has lots of jagged edges and protuberances. In a collision, the skull stops suddenly but the brain keeps going. Inside the skull, momentum propels the brain forward and down, smashing it against the bony spikes in the skull floor. Brain cells die because they get bruised, bleed and suffocate or they get stretched, sheared, twisted and torqued as the brain sloshes back and forth after impact. Once brain cells are killed, they're gone forever. (Carey). Though researchers of the past thought that the problems with language skills resided in injury and birth defects of the left brain hemisphere, many articles in recent years have proved that hypothesis to be wrong. Scientists do not seem to know the complete truth about which side of the brain affects languageor whether even both sides work together to produce perfect language skills. Each study dome to measure the brain, while those studies may still be limited, produces differing answers to the traumatic brain injuries and brain defect dilemma. The solving of these traumatic language barriers and language destroyers will be only a matter of time, patience, and science. Researchers have already discovered much more than Paul Broca did 120 years ago about the brain and its dysfunctional glitches that cause people of all ages to have difficulties with their native language due to dyslexia, stroke, or a traumatic brain injury. Regardless of the advances in technology, however, it still seems to be an unsolved mystery as to which hemisphere language skills reside in. It seems the only action that can be

Tyndall 8 taken by a patient who suffers a traumatic brain injury is a diligent nature and a dedicated physician. Whether we experience defects and disabilities from birth such as dyslexia, or whether we are unfortunate enough to sustain a mild head trauma from an automobile or sporting accident or stroke, language is affected by those factors. While brain cells that have been damaged or killed cannot be replaced, there are still many options open to patients who wish to attempt to rehabilitate with the assistance of a therapist. Patients such as David Kennedy and Jim Gubert can do no more than attempt to live a normal life with the help of institutions and hope that scientists and those in the medical field continue to research how brain injury correlates to the loss of language.